NY Giants' Brandon Jacobs not hiding frustration over questions about production

Brandon Jacobs is averaging 3.6 yards per carry this season, after picking up 5 yards per carry each of the past two years.Brandon Jacobs has never been one to mask his emotions.

During the 2006 season, when he and his wife were expecting their son, Brayden, he made a very public salute to her pregnancy by tucking a football under his jersey after scoring a touchdown.

Last fall, after the Giants topped 200 rushing yards against the top-ranked Ravens run defense, he exited the field through the tunnel yelling, “Who can’t run the ball? Who can’t run the ball?”

Now, the Giants’ starting running back is frustrated. And in a session with reporters Thursday, he couldn’t hold that back, either.

“I see myself as a tone setter; yes, I do,” Jacobs said, abruptly raising his voice after being asked how he is a “tone-setter” for the offense. “I’m going out, and I’m just running into people. My 6-4, 265-pound frame doing what I’m supposed to be doing — running into people, getting two-yard losses. Happy?”

His frustration, offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride said, stems from his numbers not being at the same level they’ve been in the past. Jacobs is averaging 3.6 yards per carry through five games this year, after picking up 5.0 yards per attempt in each of the past two seasons.

Jacobs has also been the subject of plenty of external analysis, first from Fox’s Tony Siragusa for allegedly “tiptoeing” at the line of scrimmage and now for his level of production. Jacobs, who signed a four-year, $25 million deal with the Giants in the offseason, has said he feels like he can’t win.

But Gilbride’s message to Jacobs, in their recent conversations, has been far from critical: “Just keep playing. We’re not disappointed at all.”

“It’s hard to discern any difference from the past,” Gilbride said. “Just like you guys will say, ‘How come so-and-so hasn’t caught the ball as many times as he did last year?’ I just say, during the course of the year, it will all even out. ... I think his stats will be just where they’ve been over the last few years, once the year is done. Right now, we’ve called a certain run, maybe it hasn’t opened up quite the way it would have in the past.”

That’s been put into starker contrast with teammate Ahmad Bradshaw averaging 6.5 yards per carry as the No. 2 back. Gilbride called the way Bradshaw is playing “absolutely great football,” praising how he’s been able to create big plays even when the Giants aren’t in the ideal call or scheme.

But Bradshaw is also a completely different style of running back than Jacobs. He’s at his best when he makes defenders miss — as he has been doing all season. Jacobs excels when “we come off the ball as a unit,” Gilbride said, which the Giants are trying to execute more efficiently.

Not that the Giants’ run game has been stalling this season: The team ranks fourth in the league in rushing yards per game. Individually, Bradshaw ranks sixth in the NFL with 375 total yards, and Jacobs is ninth with 355 yards — on pace to eclipse his season total last year, though he sat out three games in 2008 due to injury.

“We are averaging 160 yards a game rushing,” coach Tom Coughlin quipped. “So somehow, some way, the ball is moving down the field.”

Coughlin defended his franchise back, saying “I don’t think there is anything for Brandon to be down on.” But Jacobs’ own remarks have affirmed his frustrations, sentiments his coaches expect him to convert into a positive result — particularly this weekend.

Jacobs attended Assumption High School in Napoleonville, La., and estimates he’ll have about 45 relatives and friends in the Superdome when the Giants play the Saints there Sunday.

A dominant performance would show his hometown cheering section the kind of player he has become — and quell this season’s frustration, both internal and external.

“I’m carrying the ball. People see me, they see nothing else,” Jacobs said. “I can take the blame for that, because there are a lot of people that don’t know what’s going on. If something happens, a wideout doesn’t run the right route or someone tips the ball, it’s on the QB, because that’s what people see. It’s the same thing.

“I’m doing the best I can do for my team,” Jacobs continued. “It’s going to come. As long as I finish at where I finished the last couple years, I’m fine. It’s going to come together.”NOTES